Colors and prints can not only add visual interest to a space, but also infuse it with more life and personality. However, some of us may feel quite hesitant about utilizing these in our homes, in fear that they won’t work. But don’t worry—there’s no need to be afraid of adding a splash of color or a dose of unique prints into your space, as long as you are smart about it. Interior designer Tito Villanueva gives tips for decorating a home outside the basic palette of neutrals and whites.

1. Echo a strong color

IMAGE Michael Angelo Chua

Especially for those who live in small spaces, the thought of using strong, bold hues in a space can sound wrong, because dark colors are commonly assumed to make a space seem smaller. On the contrary, Tito shows us that strong shades can work well when used alongside complementary tones. “I can paint an entire wall in navy blue, and everything else is just off-white. That navy blue can be the accent wall, but at the same time, I can change a countertop to blue marble, so that picks it up.”

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2. Choose colors you can live with

IMAGE Dairy Darilag

Tito shares a story from a past project: “I’ve experienced doing a house where we had an argument because the client went to a bar and saw violet, yellow, red walls—three or four different colors. She said, ‘Oh, I love those colors! I want that in my kitchen!’ I discouraged it because you go to a bar once a week maybe, you stay there for three, four hours. You don’t live in it. But she insisted, pinagawa. Wala pang two months, tumawag, ‘Have it repainted.’”

You’ll be spending a lot of time inside your home, so it’s important to make it look like the kind of space you would always want to be in. The same principle applies in picking out colors to paint your home with. Make sure to use those you can live with seeing all the time, not just because they look pretty, but because they actually work for that room.

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3. Don’t be afraid to mix prints

IMAGE Kurt Alvarez/ACME Visual Productions

Though they are interesting, prints can also be difficult to work with. A secret to making them work? Coordinate the colors. “There are clients who question sometimes, ‘Bagay ba yang stripes na yan with yung geometric or yung floral?’ And when you think about it, you wear that as an outfit, so it simply means it can work. When you look at the colors, at least coordinated dapat yung colors, di ba?”

This snippet originally appeared in the July 2017 issue of Real Living Magazine.